JUST IN: DOJ Wants to Question Mike Pence as a Witness in On-Going Trump Jan. 6 Criminal Investigation
The Department of Justice has reportedly reached out to former Vice President Mike Pence’s legal team seeking Pence’s witness testimony as part of the criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump and his attempts to remain in power despite losing the 2020 presidential election.
The New York Times reported on Wednesday that “Thomas Windom, one of the lead investigators examining the efforts to overturn the election, reached out to Mr. Pence’s team in the weeks before Attorney General Merrick B. Garland appointed a special counsel on Friday.”
Garland vowed when appointing Jack Smith as special counsel to oversee both the DOJ’s investigations into Trump’s behavior around Jan. 6th and the retention of White House documents that both investigations would continue uninterrupted.
Maggie Haberman and Michael S. Schmidt, who broke the news, reported that “Mr. Pence, according to people familiar with his thinking, is open to considering the request, recognizing that the Justice Department’s criminal investigation is different from the inquiry by the House Jan. 6 committee, whose overtures he has flatly rejected.”
Pence’s behavior on Jan. 6 has been widely praised as he refused to leave the U.S. Capitol despite direct threats to him and his family and certified the election results that day against the express wishes of Trump.
In recent months, Pence has made a wide range of comments on the topic of Trump, Jan. 6th, and the appointment of a special prosecutor. Pence has made clear he believes the GOP will “have better choices” than Trump for president in 2024, but has continued to praise Trump’s legacy in office.
Additionally, Pence has publicly expressed dismay with Trump’s actions surrounding Jan. 6th, but has also called Garland’s appointment of a special counsel “very troubling.”
The Times noted that while DOJ has sought to question Pence, “the discussions about questioning Mr. Pence are said to be in their early stages. Mr. Pence has not been subpoenaed, and the process could take months, because Mr. Trump can seek to block, or slow, his testimony by trying to invoke executive privilege.”
